Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves Kansas Narratives
SLAVE NARRATIVES A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves TYPEWRITTEN RECORDS PREPARED BY THE FEDERAL WRITERS' PROJECT, 1936-1938 ASSEMBLED BY THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS PROJECT WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA SPONSORED BY THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS WASHINGTON 1941
gathered from some other locality for burial in this mound,
or that cremation was practiced before burial, and the
fragments of bone not consumed by fire were gathered and
deposited in the mound. That the latter supposition is the
correct one I deem probable from the fact that in digging in
the mound evidences of fire are found in numerous places,
but without any regularity as to depth and position. These
evidences consist in strata of from one to four inches in
thickness, in which the sand is of a dark color and has
mixed with it numerous small fragments of charcoal.
My theory is that the mound was built by gradual accretion
in the following manner: That when a death occurred a
funeral pyre was erected on the mound, upon which the body
was placed. That after the body was consumed, any fragments
of bones remaining were gathered, placed in a pot, and
buried, and that the ashes and cinders were covered by a
layer of sand brought from the immediate vicinity for that
purpose. This view is further supported by the fact that
only the shafts of the long bones are found, the expanded
extremities, which would be most easily consumed, having
disappeared; also, by the fact that no bones of children
were found. Their bones being smaller, and containing a less
proportion of earthy matter, would be entirely consumed. * *
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SLAVE NARRATIVES A Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves TYPEWRITTEN RECORDS PREPARED BY THE FEDERAL WRITERS' PROJECT, 1936-1938 ASSEMBLED BY THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS PROJECT WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA SPONSORED BY THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS WASHINGTON 1941